CThru.com Presents Tony Ward

Martine Brand

……….In her youth Martine Brand traveled a lot with her parents, soaking up the rich history of European culture. She was born and raised in Holland and attended fashion school in Den Haag, Antwerpen, Belgium and even a few months in Paris. After developing a strong foundation and love for fashion she returned to her native country and studied painting and illustration at the Art Academy in Amsterdam.

Martine Brand

After her studies, Martine created illustrations for Dutch chlldrens book publisher, Kluitman as well as others, and began exhibiting her work in Amsterdam, Belgium and New York.

Martine Brand

Martine Brand

Martine Brand

She continues to expand her range as an artist by recently enrolling in a 3D animation producer school in Amsterdam, while continuing with her travels.

Martine Brand

Martine Brand

Martine Brand

……….To learn more about Martine’s work log on to www.brandillustrations.com.

Martine Brand

Mashed Up

Posted by Chantal van Duppen

……We started Mashed Up simply because we love to create worlds and bring stories to life. Life would be too boring if we did not have the chance to paint the colors more intense and bright. We are currently teaming up with a photographer, make up artist and an editor to realize our upcoming projects. We see ourselves as story tellers that direct photo shoots. Our ultimate goal is to be art directors for advertising, fashion, lifestyle and music clients. We also have our own view on life that we want to bring forward in our free work.

An image tells an unfinished story. It is up to the viewer to ask himself, what has happened and how the story finishes, because in the end the image will always belong to the viewer, and truth lies within the experience of it. We say that “we design the experience”, and “everyone has their own experience, we design yours”.

Photos by Eric Soenens

In life, we are inspired by contradictions, history, the human ego, sex, violence, instincts, urges and spirituality. In our free work we find the human flaws the most interesting and beautiful subjects to investigate. Faces, attitudes, and postures make us wonder what is hidden beyond the surface. We believe in a system of life which connects people and events tp each other. As different forms of art can be connected to each other, we came up with the name, Mashed Up, which is derived from the term “mash up” (song or composition created by blending two or more songs by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the music track of another).

Duo

As a duo, our interests and backgrounds are interrelated. While Iris has a passion for poetry, narrative literature and dance, Chantal loves photography, film, art and graphic design. This combination makes us work well together. Furthermore, having a commercial background in marketing we have both learned to merge into a business driven environment as well.

Iris And Chantal

www.MashedUp.nl

…..to be continued….

Julia

…..When Julia’s husband called the studio he sounded like any doting husband that gushed about how beautiful his wife was. The conversation invariably led to, “would you be interested in photographing Julia”? I gave him the customary answer, to send some pictures along via email for a quick revue. The husband is Dutch from Amsterdam where they met and live. Julia is from Bratislava, the capitol of the Slovak Republic, with a population of about 429,000, also the country’s largest city.

Julia in Bathroom, Topless

The email images were satisfactory, so I arranged to meet the couple at my apartment in Amsterdam, where we made plans to produce the shoot.

Julia At The Canal

The husband dreamed of his wife appearing in the pages of Penthouse…….

Red Light District

She was Penthouse material……….

Penthouse Pet Of The Year

……..I first met Danny Linden on one of my first trips to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Amsterdam is like a little village. There is an interconnectedness with everyone that I’ve met in the most liberal city on the planet. Danny was introduced to me by my close friends, Rene Meuessen and Jeroren Oosterhout, the producers of the Wasteland Party, a fetish extravaganza that I’ve been documenting for the past decade in the fall and spring of each year.

On one of my earliest trips, Rene introduced me to Ms. Linden at The Super Club, a marvelous dinner theater/night club in the heart of the city. Danny and I hit it off right away and became friends. She also has commissioned me to produce a number of catalogue shoots for her famous boutique, Absolute Danny, located at Oudezijds Achterburgwal 78 in the heart of the Red Light District. She is one of the sexiest women in Holland and a dear friend of the studio.
Over the past few years Danny has been busy creating rubber clothing under her own ABSOLUTE DANNY label.

Tony Ward Studio For Absolute Danny

To learn more about Danny Linden, log on to www.absolutedanny.com…………

Absolute Fetish

www.AbsoluteDanny.com

Dutch Beauty

….. The trip to Amsterdam was winding down after several days of continuous shooting. I arranged my schedule so that I could take the last couple of days off to relax with friends before heading back to the states. It just so happened that on my day off, a huge soccer match was being played in town. Everybody was in a good mood in anticipation of the colossal sporting event. If you have never been to Holland during a Champions League match, its like a Major League playoff baseball game in the states, but way more intense. There was a heightened sense of national pride in the atmosphere while most of the country stopped everything they were doing to watch the contest on television.

I decided to return to a sports bar that I had visited on a prior trip, where I could get a good bite to eat, enjoy the match and throw down a few Heineken’s in between the roar of the crowd. I also recalled the last time I visited just a few months earlier, the bartender was gorgeous and my instincts were telling me she would be a welcomed addition to the pages of Penthouse magazine.

As I entered the establishment I was in luck, there she was again. I noticed the pale skin, long blond curly hair through the thick smoke filled atmosphere. The raucous mostly male crowd, hardly seemed to take notice of the native beauty. I meandered towards the bar where she was serving and grabbed the last seat available just as the match began.

After a few moments she approached and immediately recognized me from the last time I visited. This time we exchanged pleasantries and I learned her name, Dagmar Rose.
Dagmar was friendly like most of the Dutch women that I have encountered in the past. I explained to her that I was a photographer and producer for Penthouse America and proceeded to show her a portfolio of sample images on my cell phone. Cellular internet access is a very useful tool for the traveling photographer. She was impressed and agreed to meet me at my hotel for a sitting after work.
After the match, I quickly rushed back to my hotel suite to prepare the room and my equipment for her arrival.
Dagmar’s shapely figure is a result of many years of classical training in dance, her true passion.
I look forward to many more shoots with Dagmar Rose……..TW

Wasteland Book Release Spring 2010

…..Right about now, thousands of Europeans are doing last minute shopping as they prepare their outfits for the twice yearly pilgrimage to Amsterdam, to attend the massive fetish party Wasteland tomorrow night in Amsterdam. Party organizers predict attendance to peak at around 4000 revelers for the well organized event. TW has been documenting the party for the past 10 years and is pleased to announce that he will be publishing a long awaited series of documentary photographs of the extravaganza in the Spring of 2010. For those of you who can make last minute plans to travel to Amsterdam we highly suggest you attend. You will never forget it! Dress code is required……

www.Wasteland.nl

Post by Corey Armpriester

CA-Can an artist be successful without an agent or gallery representation?
TW-That’s a problem with the art scene over the past 10 to 20 years. The galleries and the collectors became the power brokers in the art world instead of the artists and the artist almost became secondary to the art. You don’t need a big name gallery a big name museum or a big name collector verifying your importance; that is something you have to establish yourself and that is what will draw your audience, not the other way around.

CA-Why do you live in Philadelphia?
TW-This is where I was born and raised and I have family here and I’m a very family oriented person, Philly is home.

Family, assistants

CA-Do you think having a family hinders the artist in any way as far as resources and time that can be given to the work?
TW-No question, that was one of the hard things about my marriage and raising a family. It’s always an underlying drive, the work comes first. Any artist of merit will say the Art comes first.

CA-How does your family deal with that and what is the consequence?
TW-The consequence in my case is divorce. Unfortunately my 23 years of marriage to my wife Sandy has started to unravel through divorce proceedings. It’s an unfortunate circumstance.

CA-Do you ever allow the assistant to take the photograph?
TW-No, my assistants generally take care of my post production needs and they also help me on the actual shoot, but I never give them the responsibility of taking the shot and then me putting my name to it; that would never happen.

CA-Is there something unethical about that?
TW-No, Andy Warhol had the factory; it’s really up to the individual artist to decide.

CA-Do you practice sex magic?
TW-I’m not gonna get into my personal sex life.

CA-What? Tony Ward is afraid to talk about sex!?
TW-I’m not afraid to talk about sex. I think there’s a thing called love and I think there’s a thing called sex and the two are not necessarily the same; does that answer your question?
CA-Yes.

CA-Is the Muse necessary?
TW-The Muse is like having coffee in the morning.

CA-Is feminism contributing to the destruction of the family?
TW-No, I don’t think feminism is the thing that destroys families, there’s a lack of a long term commitment.
CA-People will be surprised that Tony Ward is coming to the defense of feminism; that’s very bizarre.
TW-I’m not committed to the idea of feminism. Who am I to say a feminist viewpoint is right or wrong. What I prefer to do is through my work ask more questions about a variety of cultural issues.

CA-Is photography stupid?
TW-Photography is simple, not stupid; even with all the cameras out there people still take very mundane pictures that don’t need to proliferate the planet. In the proper hands, it’s really a rewarding medium.

CA-Could you talk about light?
TW-There’s no such thing as good light or bad light

CA-Artificial and natural light are equal?
TW-There’s no mandate from the art gods indicating what type of light one should work with.

CA-Amsterdam is
TW-My second home.

CA-Do you have a favorite coffee shop and do you eat Space Cakes?
TW-No, no Space Cakes for me. I know too many Dutch friends that have carted Americans off to hospitals because of those space cakes.

CA-One Space Cake is not going to send you to the hospital.
TW-I know that Mick Jagger has been taken back to the hotel on occasion.

Part 3 of the interview will be posted tomorrow…..

…..Blend is to mix smoothly and inseparably together or to mix in order to obtain a particular kind or quality. A perfect title for the avant guarde publication born in 2005 from a collective of Dutch visionaries from Amsterdam. The studio was delighted to be participate in producing some of the first fashion spreads for the new publication. Today Blend has grown and evolved in to the mainstream and has morphed in to a popular culture icon in Holland and beyond.

Blend Fashion

The intention was to design a lifestyle publication for people that enjoy contemporary music, art, film, fashion and photography. With an ear to the ground for what is happening on the street, Blend editors are quick to point out trends that are happening in the alleyways and on main street with an intense passion and regard for all of the the topics that attract their growing 21st century readership.
Besides the regular issues of Blend which appear on newsstands eight times a year, they also collaborate with external parties such as the Stedeliijk Museum of Holland to create unique publications that are referred to as Special Blends. These additional publications have featured the work of Andy Warhol for example……

www.Blend.nl

Posters By Artists To Promote Wasteland

….This is the first poster that I shot for Vault Productions to promote the Wasteland extravaganza. Over the years several distinguished artists have been invited to produce images to promote the event that include, Fritz Kok, Micha Klein, Gerard Wessel, Edland Man, Carli Hermes, Erwin Olaf and your’s truly……

Largest Fetish Party In The World

….I first learned about Wasteland on one of my many extended trips to my home away from home Amsterdam, The Netherlands. One evening when I was out on the town with a group of friends, I was informed that the organizers of Wasteland heard a rumor that I was in town and asked if I would meet with them to discuss their upcoming party. They were interested in commissioning me to produce a picture to be used on a poster to promote the event. This is no ordinary party, it’s a *special* party and when they set a date for the extravaganza, 4000 people show up to celebrate the event. So, I went to the meeting and learned more about the players involved, Rene Meuessen and Jeroen Oosterhout, principals of Vault Productions . Rene and Jeroen have been involved with the nightlife scene in Amsterdam for the past two decades and they are the best people to know if you want to have a good time while your staying in Holland. This years event will be held on the 14th of November and yours truly plans to be in attendance! They’ve asked me to make a guest appearance and photograph the event as I have for the past 10 years while one of Hollands top VJ’s projects my images live at the event. There are fashion shows, live performer’s, people attending the event engaged in acts at random and top DJ’s and VJ’s provide the sight’s and sounds of this twice yearly visual and auditory feast. The next Wasteland will commemorate it’s 15th year of existence and will culminate in a book publication of my experiences at this amazing spectacle in 2010. This is the ultimate party for the true hedonist, dress code required. For more information about the event email my good friend Rene at rene@vaultevents.nl, tell him I sent you!………..